Book Review: Seven Black Diamonds

Lilywhite Abernathy is a criminal—she’s half human, half fae, and since the time before she was born, a war has been raging between humans and faeries. The Queen of Blood and Rage, ruler of the fae courts, wants to avenge the tragic death of her heir due to the actions of reckless humans.Lily’s father has always shielded her, but when she’s sent to the prestigious St. Columba’s school, she’s delivered straight into the arms of a fae sleeper cell—the Black Diamonds. The Diamonds are planted in the human world as the sons and daughters of the most influential families and tasked with destroying it from within. Against her will, Lilywhite’s been chosen to join them...and even the romantic attention of the fae rock singer Creed Morrison isn’t enough to keep Lily from wanting to run back to the familiar world she knows.Melissa Marr returns to faery in a dramatic story of the precarious space between two worlds and the people who must thrive there. The combination of ethereal fae powers, tumultuous romance, and a bloodthirsty faery queen will have longtime fans and new readers at the edge of their seats (goodreads).

Seven Black Diamonds excels in cliches and poor pacing.

Plot: I have to be 100% honest with you all. I read the first 300 hundred pages then skimmed the rest. From the first page, I knew that writing was not for me. We are thrust into a world with little explanation and multiple perspectives. To say it was overwhelming would be an understatement. Honestly, backstory, major plot points (that explain what our characters are even doing), and intentions are explained roughly around the 100-page mark. After that, Marr painfully overexplains situations and relationships. From there, we fall into all the basic cliches, including the powerful-unassuming-girl-who-has-multiple-boys-falling-over-themselves. Who's not tired of that one?

Characters: Lilywhite's father is a powerful crimelord which somehow makes her famous. She goes to school with a bunch of other rich and powerful teens and instantly becomes friends with a convenient group of 6 people with all have special powers. You know, the usual. There is an instant love triangle which is really unnecessary. In short, I found all of the characters to be juvenile and lacking depth.

Worldbuilding: Lilywhite is sent to a boarding school for "protection" according to her mafia father (like really?). The campus setting is overdone in a lot of YA and wasn't even explored in the book. The fae land is also present, but besides a few rooms in the castle, not much is explained.

Short N Sweet: Seven Black Diamonds did not mesh with me because of the writing style and overused cliches in the genre.